I recently read that the annual salary of a stay-at-home mom for 2019 was $178,201 based on an analysis by salary.com. Unfortunately, the reality is that no matter how much these figures have risen over time, stay-at-home moms do not see a single cent of this salary. Before you become a someone else’s caretaker, set money aside if for the sole reason to have it as a cushion for when and if you decide to leave the workforce to care for others.

I opened a 529 account 3 months after my husband and I tied the knot in 2013. Call it intentional planning. Call it planned savings. Call it whatever you want, but it was just something I felt I needed to do given where we were financially. Having children also felt like our next big step after marriage.

Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.

After more than 30 years as a nurse (most in the ICU), my mother retired last year just shy of her 62nd birthday. It was her goal to retire before this birthday milestone. She shares her story her as immigrant nurse from the Philippines doing what she could do survive and thrive in a new country. For this blog post, I thought I would round up some of the more popular blogs and posts on personal finance from those who work in the medical industry.

Today’s post is a little different. It’s a roundup post of money advice for teachers and educators. For majority of my posts here, I’ve written from the perspective of someone who was in the corporate world. By nature, being in the corporate world has it’s own unique system, terminology, career ladder, retirement, etc. After reading the TIME piece “13 Stories of Life on a Teacher's Salary” late last year, I was aghast at how little we pay and pay attention to the people that are shaping our children’s future.

To that effect, I think it’s equally important that teachers also take it upon themselves to do what they can to get themselves financial independent.

I have to admit that 18, all I wanted to do was get out of my parents house. Not that I had any issues at home, I just felt I needed some independence. I was pretty lucky because my parents are awesome people. A few years ago, my husband and I came back to live with my parents. It's a strange feeling after being out of the house for over 10 years. So we ended up co-habitating with my parents in our 30s and I have to stay it was not as bad as they say it is. Here are some tips to make the most of this time.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

There is absolutely no shortage of investing materials on the internet, but the problem is that there’s too much, it can be overwhelming where to even start. So to help you with that, we’ve compiled a list of resources, from YouTube videos, blog posts and books to help you navigate the world of investing. These are not your mother’s resources.

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.

Who is Responsible for Teaching Financial Literacy?

This has been a question that has been weighing on my mind lately. I write and read a lot about personal finances and I wanted to figure out who really is responsible for financial education. I’ve observed a great deal of fear and hesitation when it comes to financial conversations, partly because many of us are just not used to it talking about the subject and partly because many of us aren’t well informed about finances.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Happy New Year! Another year, another 365 days of well-meaning resolutions. To help you achieve your financial goals, we’ve come up with 19 actions items to take into the New Year. Yes 19! Pick one or two to focus on the first quarter, then another two for the next quarter. Do not overwhelm yourself by doing too much.

In Behavioral Economics, there is a term called the Pain of Paying in which we feel pain when we have to pay for something. Today, the Pain of Paying is harder to achieve because of new payment options that don’t allow us to experience a loss. How can we use this concept to curtail spending?

There is a great irony when it comes to Thanksgiving. It’s a day to be thankful and show gratitude for what we have, but it is also one of the most wasteful holidays. Let’s change that with these tips.

Give a man an education and he will build a new world, but give a man a loan and you can own that man forever.

It’s been 10 years since I graduated from grad school. I still proudly hang up my diploma because it put me on a better path for my career and my income. It was also FREE. No loans, no debt, no soul to be sold. With that, I thought I might offer some ways to help reduce debt if you are a college student or have a child that is about to head to college.

“After you leave home, you may find yourself feeling homesick, even if you have a new home that has nicer wallpaper and a more efficient dishwasher than the home in which you grew up.”

Next week, my parents will complete the sale of their home and journey back to the Philippines. Whether they end up staying in the Philippines for the remainder of their retirement or come back is yet to be decided. For the past few months, our entire family has gone through the exercise of cleaning out the house that we’ve called home for the past 23 years.

I’ve been doing a lot of reflection lately about where I first started to learn about money and how best to talk to others about money. I’ve also been doing a fair amount of research and found a few books I thought were worth mentioning if you are a parent or an adult that is looking for ways to talk about money to your kids or your students. The reality is that the money conversation should start at home. It think it is the responsibility of the parent to expose kids about money concepts, otherwise, media and peers will create money influences that may lead to a distorted money mindset later on.

We recently created these postcards as a friendly reminder of the many things we can do today to set ourselves up for financial independence. The 3 Guidelines of Personal Finance is Spend Less, Earn More and Invest the Rest. These are what I also call the 3 Wealth Building Strategies. Do all 3 and you are sure to have a sizeable nest egg to help you fulfill your dreams, but I am going to change the order a bit and actually make it Invest First, Spend Less, Earn More.

“To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors.”

I never thought I would write this or be adult enough to have a discussion with my parents about finances, but it happened and it's been happening folks. I feel like the more I talk about money, the more comfortable I am getting and the more people around me are also getting comfortable talking about it.

"A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life."

I recently came across an article written by Whitney Cummings on the last page of Money Magazine. She talks about her personal money management, but more importantly how she started substituting the word money for the word freedom. So I thought I would compile a list of phrases with this substitution. It's important to note that sometimes changing our language changes our mindset in a whole new way even if we haven't fully internalized it yet. Try these on for size. Speak them out loud. How does saying one versus the other make you feel?

Without vision you don't see, and without practicality the bills don't get paid.

If your employer told you you would get a $5000 bonus each year, would you take it? Of course we all would, but we would ask the question, what do we have to do to get the bonus? How much to we have to meet in sales? How many projects do we have to complete? What performance metrics would be tracked and what do we have to do to meet it?

Guess what? That $5000 bonus is actually easier to get than you might think. All you have to do is to save money. Easy right? The reality is that many people don't do this because they don't understand what a 401K is or why they should take advantage of it. Today, we are going to breakdown why you should be taking advantage of your 401K to build your nest egg, to build your retirement accounts and get you to financial independence faster.

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Disclaimer

Sisters for Financial Independence is an educational resource for those looking to gain financial independence. The information presented here does not consider the economic status or risk profile of any specific person. The information and opinions expressed should not be construed as investment/trading advice and does not constitute an offer, or an invitation to make an offer, to buy and sell securities.